Welcome to The Forum SA. As a visitor you have read only access to the public content areas of this website. You will have to register as a member to access all content, post messages and network with our members. Membership is free and registering is quick and easy. You can click here to register now and become a member within minutes.

Civil service pay rises too high

Public Service Minister Geraldine Fraser-Moleketi announced in Parliament this week that civil servants would receive a 10,5% cost of living increase from July.

This creates a problem for the whole economy and poor Tito who is trying to hold things together.

"As soon as government concludes a wage agreement like this, it sets the tone for private sector negotiations," he [Kevin Lings] said.

It just seems irresponsible and inflation fuelling to act like this. The government is basically saying that they do not buy into the inflation target that has been set. Or possibly don't understand there role in containing inflation.

The sucky thing here is that to a lot of people the government comes out smelling like roses (meanwhile they are actually negatively impacting the economy), and Tito is the bad guy (meanwhile he is actually fighting the good fight for the man on the street).

South Africa's Cabinet has approved a Bill that would speed up its land reform programme aimed at transferring 30% of farmland to black ownership by 2014, a government spokesperson said on Thursday.

And yet just last week the DA was taken to task for "misinterpreting" the effect of this bill. The argument there was that the bill empowers the Minister of Public Works, not Land Affairs! This meant it could only be used for land needed for expansion of public utilities.

There was some commentary on the bill on the news last night (eTV). My interpretation of what they were saying is that any piece of land can be bought for below market value. Without having seen the bill I'm not sure under what circumstances this could occur.